More than 2500 software and information technology developers participate in this year's edition of the Global Tech Summit, which was opened today at the National Palace of Culture by the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova. Under the umbrella of the largest technology forum in Eastern Europe, are united the specialized conferences on programming and new Java2Days, CodeMonsters and AI & SmartTech technologies, which form the largest event in programming and technology in the country.

The Sofia Development Association is a partner of the initiative.

Mayor Fandakova congratulated Ivelina Abadzhieva for having been gathering in Sofia experts and practitioners in the field of information technology from around the world for 11 years now. Quite rightly, Sofia is already mentioned by various world media as the Digital Capital of the New Markets.

‘In a Financial Times article, Sofia ranks second among the 10 fastest growing technology hubs in Europe. The IT sector becomes part of Sofia's business card and brings to the city both investment and economic growth’, said Fandakova. Only by September of this year, seven major projects in the field of information and communication technologies worth USD 93.5 million were launched in Sofia.

Fandakova pointed out that we support such events as this Global Technology Forum, which shows the talent and creativity of our developers to the world, as well as the opportunities to do business in Sofia.

Sofia is a national leader in the ICT sector with a huge potential to be a leader in Europe. More than 92% of the technology companies in the country operate in Sofia.

To encourage and develop these strengths of Sofia, 5 years ago, Sofia Municipality started organizing hackathons with specific tasks, and then we helped the winners to develop their ideas.

Last year we launched the Accelerator Start-up Sofia Programme, through which 13 start-up companies were selected for funding.

‘Digital technology and investment are priorities and next year we will have a special department with Deputy Mayor’, said also Fandakova.

The Global Tech Summit 2019 has an 11-year-long history; it is the second largest in Europe and the third in the world. The main topics of the event were programming, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity.

At the event, children from Razgrad presented the robots they had made.